Mar 24,2008 00:00 by
UPI CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Floodwaters were subsiding in southern Illinois Monday as residents worked on cleaning up the mess in their flooded homes.

Evacuees forced out last week were allowed to return home Sunday but officials urged them to avoid contact with floodwaters due to the possibility of contamination, The Southern newspaper of Carbondale, Ill. reported.

Fifteen roads remained closed Sunday in Jackson County.

In Randolph County, farmland and rural areas were the only places flooding problems were still encountered.

Inspections of the levee system by state and federal officials were continuing.